The Creator Reaching Toward Earth Among the GalaxiesBible World
1:3John 1:3
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
The Maker spoken of is the Word, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who was with God and was God in the beginning and afterward became flesh and lived among people full of grace and truth. All things were made by him and through him, and nothing that was created came into being apart from him. The Father and the Son planned and carried out the work of creation together, with the Son acting in union with the Father to fulfill the Father's will. Because he made all things he existed before them, one with the Father in dignity, glory, nature and purpose, and this proves his divinity and pre-existence before his coming to earth. In him was life, and that life is the light of men, the source from which every person receives physical life, intellect, spiritual power and desire for goodness. The Creator himself entered the world he had made, veiling his glory in human nature, and when man fell he gave his life, suffering and death as substitute and surety to atone for transgression, redeem and restore God's image, and give eternal life to believers.
Words and Divine Identity
The Maker spoken of is the Word, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, the only begotten Son. He was in the beginning with God and was God, divine in the highest sense and one with God. This Creator God became flesh and dwelt among people, full of grace and truth, coming to a guilty world as its Light. He is the image of the Father, to be presented by words telling who He is and what He did, since neither God nor heaven nor Christ can be truly represented by human art. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men shining in darkness that does not overcome it, and He is the source of life who later became human.
All things were made by Him, everything that was made. All things were made through Him, through the Word, through Christ. Without Him was not anything made that was made, and nothing created came into being apart from Him.
Father and Son Creating
The Father and the Son planned creation together and carried it out together, the Father appointing and entrusting the Son to work in union with Himself in making the earth and every living thing upon it. The Son is the agent through whom the work was done, acting with the Father's authority to carry out the Father's will and purposes, doing nothing of Himself alone and nothing independently, so that the Father's will is fulfilled in Him. Jesus thus united with the Father in making the world and is its Creator.
What was made through Him includes the heavenly beings, the worlds, heaven and earth and everything in them, the sea and the sky, sun, moon and stars, hill and vale, river and tree, leaf and flower, plant and food, animals and humanity, animate and inanimate. By His word of power and His own hand hill and vale, river and tree, leaf and flower came into being, and every blessing of sun and moon and every star that beautifies the heavens, every flower in color and fragrance, every article of food, with rain and light, comes day by day through Him bearing His mark. Through Him a personal, self-existing God created man, not by an impersonal force.
The earth came forth from the Creator's hand exceedingly beautiful like a noble palace, complete and perfect and very good, pure and holy and in harmony with the character of the Father and the Son, with every part serving its appointed purpose. The air was pure and healthful, the land was diversified rather than one extensive plain, with hills, mountains and plains regular and beautiful in shape, not high and ragged as now, with bare rock never seen upon them but lying beneath the surface as bones to the earth. Waters were regularly dispersed in rivers and other bodies of water, and hills, mountains and very beautiful plains were adorned with plants and flowers and tall, majestic trees of every description many times larger and much more beautiful than trees now are, which angels beheld and rejoiced over.
Through Him God formed the human body perfect in its arrangements and in His image, yet without life until He breathed into it the breath of life; then its parts began to work and man became a living, breathing, intelligent being endowed with intelligence and power. The Son of God united with the Father in creating man, and as the divine Son has power through His perfect character to atone for human sin, rescue and elevate fallen humanity, and bring people back to their first estate. He is the Maker of the human mind, which has been debased and enfeebled by sin, and as its Maker He brings recovery through redemption by giving His life on the cross to lead sinners to see sin and surrender to God, taking away destructive sinful tendencies, sanctifying and cleansing by the Holy Spirit, giving power to become sons of God, and restoring deranged powers to their original relation to God for service in redeeming others from Satan's perversion.
The creation of the world and humanity took six days, with humanity as the final work, followed by rest on the seventh day, which God blessed and made holy and gave to humanity as a sacred day of rest and worship for all time, hallowed at creation when the morning stars sang and heaven's host rejoiced. The Sabbath is God's great memorial of that creation in six days and His rest on the seventh, set apart as His own holy day, keeping the fact fresh in memory that He who made heaven and earth is God, that men may look upon heaven and earth and honor, worship, praise and exalt Him as Creator, preserve a clear knowledge of the only true God above all gods, and reveal by keeping it holy that He sanctifies them. This creation is accepted by faith, since reasoning alone cannot prove it and the things now visible were not made from things visible to the eye, as taught in Hebrews 11:3.
Preexistence and Divinity Proved
Because he made all things and nothing made came into being apart from him, he existed before all that he made. His life was already before the worlds were made, eternal and belonging uniquely to him, unlike human life which is given and temporary. He was with God before the angels were created, and his making of them gives him all power and shows his greatness and majesty. He is the eternal Son of God, divine in the highest sense and one with the Father.
He was one with the Father from the beginning, equal with the Father in dignity and glory, in nature, character and purpose. He ever stood at the right hand of God with pre-eminence over all the angelic host, and rightful command belonged to him alone. The Father appointed the Son to work in union with himself in creating, carrying out the Father's will and purposes and doing nothing of himself alone. This making of all things through him identifies Jesus as the world's Creator and gives witness to his divinity, his pre-existence before his advent to this world, his relationship with the Father, and his being the source of wisdom and one with God. To deny his pre-existence is to deny his divinity and to reject him as a personal Saviour.
Denying this plain testimony contradicts plain statements of Scripture and can only be done by unwarranted wresting of the Scriptures. Such denial lowers conceptions of the work of redemption, undermines faith in the Bible as a revelation from God, and prevents a true conception of the character and mission of Christ and of the great plan of God for man's redemption. Those who reject its testimony concerning his divinity cannot be convinced by argument, because the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. The command that Satan in envy and ambition reached for belonged to Christ alone, by whom the angels were made. Christ's mild, loving authority had never been questioned and had given no commands but what it was joy for the heavenly host to execute, until rebellion, which he has power by his own might to overturn and in signal manner punish.
Life Light and Redemption
In him was life, and that life was the light of men shining in darkness that darkness does not overcome, for he is the source from whom all physical life comes and through whom every person receives life and some ray of divine light, including intellect and spiritual power and a sense of right and desire for goodness. He is the eternal Word who was in the beginning with God and was God, who made everything that was made so that nothing created came into being apart from him, and this same Creator became flesh and dwelt among people full of grace and truth. His life shines in believers who trust in his merits and receive his righteousness, so that their lives and characters shine as his representatives in a dark world.
The Creator Word took human nature, veiling his divine glory, and came in person into the world he had made as its Light and divine Teacher. He came to a guilty world to show how to live sinless lives and to reveal God's goodness and mercy and love. As God become human he dwelt among humanity in glory full of grace and truth, identified in his context as Creator and as God and as the source of life.
Though he was in the world he had made, the world did not know him, and though he came to his own, his own did not receive him; his role as Creator did not ensure recognition when he came as the light. The Word who created the world later became flesh and lived among humanity, yet the world he made did not recognize him and his own people rejected him. All who do receive him and believe on his name are given by him power to become sons of God, and from his fullness all receive grace upon grace.
When man fell he announced his purpose to become man's substitute and surety, the child born and Son given called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. In his life and suffering and death and sacrifice he took transgression upon himself and suffered sin's penalty to atone and redeem and pardon, so that people may be freed through faith in him and share in the redemption he made available and be restored to God's image and granted adoption and eternal life. He who was equal with the Father from the beginning and through whom all things were made humbled himself to become human and gave his life to save the perishing world and renew people in God's image, delighting to do God's will with God's law in his heart when Adam yielded to temptation and fell. His taking humanity while retaining divinity made him able to redeem humanity and restore people to the privileges of the higher life.
The very beings who judged and condemned him were made by him, for he made everything that exists and nothing that was made came into being apart from him. The one who created the world stood before the people he had made, clothed in human nature and with his divinity veiled. Though he could have revealed his divine glory and destroyed his enemies, clothed in flesh he patiently endured their abuse rather than using his glory to destroy them.
Sabbath Nature and Witness
He made the Sabbath as a memorial of creation, and the Sabbath therefore remembers that every created thing was made through the Son and nothing made came into being apart from Him. As a memorial of that work it is a token of His love and power. It points to Him as Creator and Sanctifier, the One by whose power all things hold together and through whom people are reconciled, and it is a sign of His power to make holy, given to those who become part of the Israel of God. The same creative work gives Him authority over the Sabbath. The making took six days with humanity as the final work, followed by rest on the seventh day, when He blessed the day, made it holy, hallowed it at creation while the morning stars sang and heaven's host rejoiced, and gave it as a sacred day of rest and worship for all time.
The sun, moon and stars, trees, flowers, food, rain and light were made by Him and through Him. Every blessing comes day by day through Him, bearing His mark and God's stamp, supplied abundantly through Him as the only-begotten Son and unspeakable Gift. His being nailed to the cross keeps all these bounties flowing to humanity and to God's workmanship. He keeps sun, moon and stars in place and provides the light, dew and rain that sustain life and make vegetation grow, with these gifts coming to both the just and the unjust.
The physical creation testifies to God and Christ and reveals their character, love, power and glory. Nature itself is not God and must not be worshipped in place of its Creator. Because He is the Maker He chose the open air as His sanctuary, did the largest part of His work outdoors surrounded by His creation, and took the common things He had made as His lesson book. His own hand wrote lessons in earth and sea and sky, in hill and vale, river and tree, leaf and flower, plant life and animal life and the life of man, connecting His lessons with familiar things to illustrate spiritual truth and seeing in them far more than finite eyes and senses can comprehend. Though He had made them He became a child of humanity and as child and youth studied His own works in nature apart from the world, day by day gaining knowledge from leaf and flower and tree, delighting to gather spiritual teaching from daily surroundings, with the significance of God's word and works unfolding gradually as He thought and sought to understand the reason of things, gathering scientific knowledge and new ideas of ways to bless others and illustrations by which to present the living oracles, later used in the parables by which He taught truth. Nature therefore points to Him and can serve as a lesson book through which students learn, teaching obedience and the true education found in simplicity, for its laws are divine laws.
The word that created all things also speaks life to the soul. The same Word that made heaven, earth and everything in them works to cleanse human beings and sanctify them through Christ. As Creator He is author of physical law just as He is author of moral law, because the laws governing the natural world come from the Creator. Transgression of physical law is therefore transgression of God's law and sin against God, and being careless and reckless about habits and practices concerning physical life and health injures the body in violation of physical law and shows that God is not reverenced, respected or recognized.
Study Obedience and Humility
All things were made through the Word, and nothing that was made came into being apart from him, and this truth lies with the living oracles at the very foundation of all true education. To know God the Creator and Jesus Christ is true education, ennobling the intellect and expanding the mind, and his creative work is to be brought into every part of life and learning and kept in mind as a guide to truth. Its full meaning cannot be received until a person is born again and sanctified by the Spirit, for together with the Spirit's presence and the true Light it guides the right interpretation of science and reveals the deepest truths in the study of God's works. Changing language and supposed improvements in study books do not change this beginning truth, which requires the fear of the Lord and keeping a distinction between the sacred and the common and forbids placing human wisdom at the head as essential. To the extent that mists and fogs encompass minds there is ignorance and misconception of God and the light from the Father of lights is not discerned, as seen when churches wise in their own conceits cannot read a Thus saith the Lord for the seventh-day Sabbath and when men worship and extol things their hands have made supposing they improve God's plans. That self-exaltation apes those one step from Eden and the Noachic world whose perfected gifts of gold and silver and devices and violence led to corruption and destruction by the Flood, and apes them again in the cry for a higher education that supersedes the knowledge of God and the greatest Teacher.
From the first record of creation to the closing promise of his coming the whole Bible tells of him, reading of his works and listening to his voice, for through him God has revealed himself in every age as the divine agent of creation. Studying the Scriptures by comparing Scripture with Scripture is the way to become acquainted with him as Saviour and Redeemer in whom hopes of eternal life are centered, leading intelligent responsible agents to know their future eternal destiny, including the fall and its woe, his first coming as a helpless babe born in a stable and cradled in a manger, his history, and the terms of salvation. His life is present in God's Word, and the whole Bible is a manifestation of him and the only source of spiritual power, for God's life which gives life to the world is in his Word. That Word sustains spiritual life as food sustains the body, so each person must receive it personally rather than depend only on another's understanding, taking it in and making it part of action and character for spiritual strength and lasting joy. Receiving the Word is receiving him, since he is the revelation of God and the manifestation of his character, law, love and life, so receiving his words on the mount is receiving him and building character and life on those great principles of the law is building upon him, the Rock of Ages, the only foundation on which an enduring character can be built.
Human beings therefore belong to him by creation and must depend on him, not on other people, for strength, wisdom and guidance. Because people depend on him for every breath, for food and clothing, and for power of thought, they have no ground for boasting of superiority or abilities, and because every capability, intelligence, reasoning power, ability and property comes through him as Maker he has the right to instruct his subjects what to do so they do not miss the eternal reward. Men take to themselves great power and proud titles because they do not see or believe in him as Creator, in whose hands are the lives of men.
Though he is Creator of the world and Prince of life, he showed none of the exaltation men put on and exercised no tyrannical power, but came in meekness and lowliness. The world was his to create and he could have lived in it with ease and plenty, yet he took upon himself the nature of weak erring man, lived a life of constant useful work, denied himself and used his life to do good and bless others. When he came to this earth he lived in lowliness and humility as a poor man, born of lowly parentage, with no place in the world of his own creating that he could call his home and nowhere to lay his head. Because he is so high, accepting him is no stooping or condescension for men but raises them to a high position, and his condescension calls individuals and churches to walk in his humility, to learn from him to be meek and lowly in heart, forbidding display and rivalry with the world and requiring wise, just and equal use of means in saving souls.
In him was life, and that life was the light of men shining in darkness that does not overcome or comprehend it, and this Creator God became flesh and dwelt among people full of grace and truth. That light is seen in believers who trust in his merits and receive his righteousness, for their lives and characters shine as his representatives in a dark world. Though he was in the world he had made the world did not know him, and though he came to his own his own did not receive him, but all who receive him and believe on his name are given by him power to become sons of God and are brought into close relationship with God. From his fullness all receive grace upon grace, so that grace in the soul flows out to others and more grace flows in to be given back to God in willing offerings, and therefore God's people must be aroused to let their light shine in good works that glorify the Father in heaven, while the power displayed in the sea and its waves points to the mighty power of God. To claim to believe this and follow him is incompatible with continuing in blind selfishness and perverted ideas, and calls those connected with God's institutions to repent and be converted so he will unite his divine power with their humanity and give strength to live out the principles of God's law, for true faith in him is invincible.
The one who created humanity and formed the first pair in Eden is the same who sanctioned marriage at Cana and began his public ministry there. This testimony presents his divinity with authority and majesty in words that are easily comprehended and that bear the most searching and critical investigation, and its words have led people to believe in him as the Son of God. It is definite truth giving divine light and glory to all who receive it, light he came from heaven to give through John about the personality of God. To estimate that light as nothing by accepting spiritualistic theories about the personality of God sweeps away the whole Christian economy, makes truth of heavenly origin of no effect, and robs God's people of their past experience by giving them false science instead.
The Maker spoken of is the Word, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who was with God and was God in the beginning and afterward became flesh and lived among people full of grace and truth. All things were made by him and through him, and nothing that was created came into being apart from him. The Father and the Son planned and carried out the work of creation together, with the Son acting in union with the Father to fulfill the Father's will. Because he made all things he existed before them, one with the Father in dignity, glory, nature and purpose, and this proves his divinity and pre-existence before his coming to earth. In him was life, and that life is the light of men, the source from which every person receives physical life, intellect, spiritual power and desire for goodness. The Creator himself entered the world he had made, veiling his glory in human nature, and when man fell he gave his life, suffering and death as substitute and surety to atone for transgression, redeem and restore God's image, and give eternal life to believers.
Words and Divine Identity
The Maker spoken of is the Word, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, the only begotten Son. He was in the beginning with God and was God, divine in the highest sense and one with God. This Creator God became flesh and dwelt among people, full of grace and truth, coming to a guilty world as its Light. He is the image of the Father, to be presented by words telling who He is and what He did, since neither God nor heaven nor Christ can be truly represented by human art. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men shining in darkness that does not overcome it, and He is the source of life who later became human.
All things were made by Him, everything that was made. All things were made through Him, through the Word, through Christ. Without Him was not anything made that was made, and nothing created came into being apart from Him.
Father and Son Creating
The Father and the Son planned creation together and carried it out together, the Father appointing and entrusting the Son to work in union with Himself in making the earth and every living thing upon it. The Son is the agent through whom the work was done, acting with the Father's authority to carry out the Father's will and purposes, doing nothing of Himself alone and nothing independently, so that the Father's will is fulfilled in Him. Jesus thus united with the Father in making the world and is its Creator.
What was made through Him includes the heavenly beings, the worlds, heaven and earth and everything in them, the sea and the sky, sun, moon and stars, hill and vale, river and tree, leaf and flower, plant and food, animals and humanity, animate and inanimate. By His word of power and His own hand hill and vale, river and tree, leaf and flower came into being, and every blessing of sun and moon and every star that beautifies the heavens, every flower in color and fragrance, every article of food, with rain and light, comes day by day through Him bearing His mark. Through Him a personal, self-existing God created man, not by an impersonal force.
The earth came forth from the Creator's hand exceedingly beautiful like a noble palace, complete and perfect and very good, pure and holy and in harmony with the character of the Father and the Son, with every part serving its appointed purpose. The air was pure and healthful, the land was diversified rather than one extensive plain, with hills, mountains and plains regular and beautiful in shape, not high and ragged as now, with bare rock never seen upon them but lying beneath the surface as bones to the earth. Waters were regularly dispersed in rivers and other bodies of water, and hills, mountains and very beautiful plains were adorned with plants and flowers and tall, majestic trees of every description many times larger and much more beautiful than trees now are, which angels beheld and rejoiced over.
Through Him God formed the human body perfect in its arrangements and in His image, yet without life until He breathed into it the breath of life; then its parts began to work and man became a living, breathing, intelligent being endowed with intelligence and power. The Son of God united with the Father in creating man, and as the divine Son has power through His perfect character to atone for human sin, rescue and elevate fallen humanity, and bring people back to their first estate. He is the Maker of the human mind, which has been debased and enfeebled by sin, and as its Maker He brings recovery through redemption by giving His life on the cross to lead sinners to see sin and surrender to God, taking away destructive sinful tendencies, sanctifying and cleansing by the Holy Spirit, giving power to become sons of God, and restoring deranged powers to their original relation to God for service in redeeming others from Satan's perversion.
The creation of the world and humanity took six days, with humanity as the final work, followed by rest on the seventh day, which God blessed and made holy and gave to humanity as a sacred day of rest and worship for all time, hallowed at creation when the morning stars sang and heaven's host rejoiced. The Sabbath is God's great memorial of that creation in six days and His rest on the seventh, set apart as His own holy day, keeping the fact fresh in memory that He who made heaven and earth is God, that men may look upon heaven and earth and honor, worship, praise and exalt Him as Creator, preserve a clear knowledge of the only true God above all gods, and reveal by keeping it holy that He sanctifies them. This creation is accepted by faith, since reasoning alone cannot prove it and the things now visible were not made from things visible to the eye, as taught in Hebrews 11:3.
Preexistence and Divinity Proved
Because he made all things and nothing made came into being apart from him, he existed before all that he made. His life was already before the worlds were made, eternal and belonging uniquely to him, unlike human life which is given and temporary. He was with God before the angels were created, and his making of them gives him all power and shows his greatness and majesty. He is the eternal Son of God, divine in the highest sense and one with the Father.
He was one with the Father from the beginning, equal with the Father in dignity and glory, in nature, character and purpose. He ever stood at the right hand of God with pre-eminence over all the angelic host, and rightful command belonged to him alone. The Father appointed the Son to work in union with himself in creating, carrying out the Father's will and purposes and doing nothing of himself alone. This making of all things through him identifies Jesus as the world's Creator and gives witness to his divinity, his pre-existence before his advent to this world, his relationship with the Father, and his being the source of wisdom and one with God. To deny his pre-existence is to deny his divinity and to reject him as a personal Saviour.
Denying this plain testimony contradicts plain statements of Scripture and can only be done by unwarranted wresting of the Scriptures. Such denial lowers conceptions of the work of redemption, undermines faith in the Bible as a revelation from God, and prevents a true conception of the character and mission of Christ and of the great plan of God for man's redemption. Those who reject its testimony concerning his divinity cannot be convinced by argument, because the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. The command that Satan in envy and ambition reached for belonged to Christ alone, by whom the angels were made. Christ's mild, loving authority had never been questioned and had given no commands but what it was joy for the heavenly host to execute, until rebellion, which he has power by his own might to overturn and in signal manner punish.
Life Light and Redemption
In him was life, and that life was the light of men shining in darkness that darkness does not overcome, for he is the source from whom all physical life comes and through whom every person receives life and some ray of divine light, including intellect and spiritual power and a sense of right and desire for goodness. He is the eternal Word who was in the beginning with God and was God, who made everything that was made so that nothing created came into being apart from him, and this same Creator became flesh and dwelt among people full of grace and truth. His life shines in believers who trust in his merits and receive his righteousness, so that their lives and characters shine as his representatives in a dark world.
The Creator Word took human nature, veiling his divine glory, and came in person into the world he had made as its Light and divine Teacher. He came to a guilty world to show how to live sinless lives and to reveal God's goodness and mercy and love. As God become human he dwelt among humanity in glory full of grace and truth, identified in his context as Creator and as God and as the source of life.
Though he was in the world he had made, the world did not know him, and though he came to his own, his own did not receive him; his role as Creator did not ensure recognition when he came as the light. The Word who created the world later became flesh and lived among humanity, yet the world he made did not recognize him and his own people rejected him. All who do receive him and believe on his name are given by him power to become sons of God, and from his fullness all receive grace upon grace.
When man fell he announced his purpose to become man's substitute and surety, the child born and Son given called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. In his life and suffering and death and sacrifice he took transgression upon himself and suffered sin's penalty to atone and redeem and pardon, so that people may be freed through faith in him and share in the redemption he made available and be restored to God's image and granted adoption and eternal life. He who was equal with the Father from the beginning and through whom all things were made humbled himself to become human and gave his life to save the perishing world and renew people in God's image, delighting to do God's will with God's law in his heart when Adam yielded to temptation and fell. His taking humanity while retaining divinity made him able to redeem humanity and restore people to the privileges of the higher life.
The very beings who judged and condemned him were made by him, for he made everything that exists and nothing that was made came into being apart from him. The one who created the world stood before the people he had made, clothed in human nature and with his divinity veiled. Though he could have revealed his divine glory and destroyed his enemies, clothed in flesh he patiently endured their abuse rather than using his glory to destroy them.
Sabbath Nature and Witness
He made the Sabbath as a memorial of creation, and the Sabbath therefore remembers that every created thing was made through the Son and nothing made came into being apart from Him. As a memorial of that work it is a token of His love and power. It points to Him as Creator and Sanctifier, the One by whose power all things hold together and through whom people are reconciled, and it is a sign of His power to make holy, given to those who become part of the Israel of God. The same creative work gives Him authority over the Sabbath. The making took six days with humanity as the final work, followed by rest on the seventh day, when He blessed the day, made it holy, hallowed it at creation while the morning stars sang and heaven's host rejoiced, and gave it as a sacred day of rest and worship for all time.
The sun, moon and stars, trees, flowers, food, rain and light were made by Him and through Him. Every blessing comes day by day through Him, bearing His mark and God's stamp, supplied abundantly through Him as the only-begotten Son and unspeakable Gift. His being nailed to the cross keeps all these bounties flowing to humanity and to God's workmanship. He keeps sun, moon and stars in place and provides the light, dew and rain that sustain life and make vegetation grow, with these gifts coming to both the just and the unjust.
The physical creation testifies to God and Christ and reveals their character, love, power and glory. Nature itself is not God and must not be worshipped in place of its Creator. Because He is the Maker He chose the open air as His sanctuary, did the largest part of His work outdoors surrounded by His creation, and took the common things He had made as His lesson book. His own hand wrote lessons in earth and sea and sky, in hill and vale, river and tree, leaf and flower, plant life and animal life and the life of man, connecting His lessons with familiar things to illustrate spiritual truth and seeing in them far more than finite eyes and senses can comprehend. Though He had made them He became a child of humanity and as child and youth studied His own works in nature apart from the world, day by day gaining knowledge from leaf and flower and tree, delighting to gather spiritual teaching from daily surroundings, with the significance of God's word and works unfolding gradually as He thought and sought to understand the reason of things, gathering scientific knowledge and new ideas of ways to bless others and illustrations by which to present the living oracles, later used in the parables by which He taught truth. Nature therefore points to Him and can serve as a lesson book through which students learn, teaching obedience and the true education found in simplicity, for its laws are divine laws.
The word that created all things also speaks life to the soul. The same Word that made heaven, earth and everything in them works to cleanse human beings and sanctify them through Christ. As Creator He is author of physical law just as He is author of moral law, because the laws governing the natural world come from the Creator. Transgression of physical law is therefore transgression of God's law and sin against God, and being careless and reckless about habits and practices concerning physical life and health injures the body in violation of physical law and shows that God is not reverenced, respected or recognized.
Study Obedience and Humility
All things were made through the Word, and nothing that was made came into being apart from him, and this truth lies with the living oracles at the very foundation of all true education. To know God the Creator and Jesus Christ is true education, ennobling the intellect and expanding the mind, and his creative work is to be brought into every part of life and learning and kept in mind as a guide to truth. Its full meaning cannot be received until a person is born again and sanctified by the Spirit, for together with the Spirit's presence and the true Light it guides the right interpretation of science and reveals the deepest truths in the study of God's works. Changing language and supposed improvements in study books do not change this beginning truth, which requires the fear of the Lord and keeping a distinction between the sacred and the common and forbids placing human wisdom at the head as essential. To the extent that mists and fogs encompass minds there is ignorance and misconception of God and the light from the Father of lights is not discerned, as seen when churches wise in their own conceits cannot read a Thus saith the Lord for the seventh-day Sabbath and when men worship and extol things their hands have made supposing they improve God's plans. That self-exaltation apes those one step from Eden and the Noachic world whose perfected gifts of gold and silver and devices and violence led to corruption and destruction by the Flood, and apes them again in the cry for a higher education that supersedes the knowledge of God and the greatest Teacher.
From the first record of creation to the closing promise of his coming the whole Bible tells of him, reading of his works and listening to his voice, for through him God has revealed himself in every age as the divine agent of creation. Studying the Scriptures by comparing Scripture with Scripture is the way to become acquainted with him as Saviour and Redeemer in whom hopes of eternal life are centered, leading intelligent responsible agents to know their future eternal destiny, including the fall and its woe, his first coming as a helpless babe born in a stable and cradled in a manger, his history, and the terms of salvation. His life is present in God's Word, and the whole Bible is a manifestation of him and the only source of spiritual power, for God's life which gives life to the world is in his Word. That Word sustains spiritual life as food sustains the body, so each person must receive it personally rather than depend only on another's understanding, taking it in and making it part of action and character for spiritual strength and lasting joy. Receiving the Word is receiving him, since he is the revelation of God and the manifestation of his character, law, love and life, so receiving his words on the mount is receiving him and building character and life on those great principles of the law is building upon him, the Rock of Ages, the only foundation on which an enduring character can be built.
Human beings therefore belong to him by creation and must depend on him, not on other people, for strength, wisdom and guidance. Because people depend on him for every breath, for food and clothing, and for power of thought, they have no ground for boasting of superiority or abilities, and because every capability, intelligence, reasoning power, ability and property comes through him as Maker he has the right to instruct his subjects what to do so they do not miss the eternal reward. Men take to themselves great power and proud titles because they do not see or believe in him as Creator, in whose hands are the lives of men.
Though he is Creator of the world and Prince of life, he showed none of the exaltation men put on and exercised no tyrannical power, but came in meekness and lowliness. The world was his to create and he could have lived in it with ease and plenty, yet he took upon himself the nature of weak erring man, lived a life of constant useful work, denied himself and used his life to do good and bless others. When he came to this earth he lived in lowliness and humility as a poor man, born of lowly parentage, with no place in the world of his own creating that he could call his home and nowhere to lay his head. Because he is so high, accepting him is no stooping or condescension for men but raises them to a high position, and his condescension calls individuals and churches to walk in his humility, to learn from him to be meek and lowly in heart, forbidding display and rivalry with the world and requiring wise, just and equal use of means in saving souls.
In him was life, and that life was the light of men shining in darkness that does not overcome or comprehend it, and this Creator God became flesh and dwelt among people full of grace and truth. That light is seen in believers who trust in his merits and receive his righteousness, for their lives and characters shine as his representatives in a dark world. Though he was in the world he had made the world did not know him, and though he came to his own his own did not receive him, but all who receive him and believe on his name are given by him power to become sons of God and are brought into close relationship with God. From his fullness all receive grace upon grace, so that grace in the soul flows out to others and more grace flows in to be given back to God in willing offerings, and therefore God's people must be aroused to let their light shine in good works that glorify the Father in heaven, while the power displayed in the sea and its waves points to the mighty power of God. To claim to believe this and follow him is incompatible with continuing in blind selfishness and perverted ideas, and calls those connected with God's institutions to repent and be converted so he will unite his divine power with their humanity and give strength to live out the principles of God's law, for true faith in him is invincible.
The one who created humanity and formed the first pair in Eden is the same who sanctioned marriage at Cana and began his public ministry there. This testimony presents his divinity with authority and majesty in words that are easily comprehended and that bear the most searching and critical investigation, and its words have led people to believe in him as the Son of God. It is definite truth giving divine light and glory to all who receive it, light he came from heaven to give through John about the personality of God. To estimate that light as nothing by accepting spiritualistic theories about the personality of God sweeps away the whole Christian economy, makes truth of heavenly origin of no effect, and robs God's people of their past experience by giving them false science instead.